Chapter 44 - Venturing Deeper

After Rio and the others woke up, they freshened themselves with a makeshift bathroom Rio created. The bathroom was a small, new space he created by digging another channel into the wall. There was only a bathtub which was filled with warm water to soak.

In the beginning, Rio didn't have a habit for soaking in hot water like Japanese, but that had become his new habit after he socialized with the students. In Heiligh Palace, he would enjoy the dip in hot water together with some male students such as Hajime, Kouki, Ryutarou, Kousuke, and his two friends. Before he knew it, he had been influenced by those children's culture.

It wasn't like a bad thing, and he found the experience from soaking in hot water was comfortable. However, it made him very spoiled and he wouldn't take a bath unless the temperature of the water was up to his standard. Well, it wasn't a problem with his transcendental elements affinity. He could create water using his magic and warm it fast.

Regardless, the three of them finally finished preparing for their next venture inside the labyrinth. Rio had donned his tunic and leggings under his black robe while Liselotte wore her combat-maid's uniform. For Aletia, Rio had created a simple one-piece gray dress for her.

The dress was created by spinning a massive amount of insectoid monster's string which was like silk he'd collected and stored into his pocket dimension into yarn before knitting it into a simple one-piece dress. He used Transmutation to do everything.

Of course, the quality was bad. Even Liselotte complained about it for the silent Aletia's sake. However, they must make due for the time being. After they arrived in the abode of Oscar Orcus, Rio promised them for better accommodations. Well, he'd leave all knitting and sewing for Liselotte, though. His knowledge and skill in that field were limited, unlike Liselotte who'd learned them from the best. Moreover, he thought it was a waste to enter the Root just for something like that.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Rio asked his two companions who stood at each side of him. He turned at them alternately.

"Yes. I'm ready." Liselotte replied shortly while fingering the handles of her sheathed rapiers. Rio nodded his approval at Liselotte before turning in Aletia's direction.

"...Yeah." Aletia responded curtly with a short nod.

Rio the turned his view towards the hole that'd send them to the next floor. It looked like a gaping maw of a monster that connected to the unknown abyss. Regardless, no one in his group seemed worried about what waited for them on the next floor.

"Very well. Let's go!"

Rio stepped into the sloppy staircase and ventured into the darkness and unknown. Meanwhile, Liselotte and Aletia followed after him closely.

And so, their dungeoneering advanced.

★★★| BREAK_LINE |★★★

"Daaaaah! Dammit! There are too many of these lizards! Annoying! Rio! Aletia! Help!"

"Aren't you a bit too relaxed!?" Liselotte retorted as she beheaded another monster that thought she was easy prey. After she executed all the monsters around them, she took a short break to catch her breath. She then turned at Rio who was daydreaming about something and became annoyed. "Rio! Could you stop daydreaming!"

"Hm? Ah! Sorry, Liselotte. Oh, well, you have done a good job of cleaning these weaklings." Rio replied absentmindedly.

Liselotte and Aletia realized that Rio seemed out of it after they arrived on this floor. They were currently standing amidst a clump of grass, with Aletia standing at his left on. Thick, tall grass, coming all the way up to Rio's shoulders, stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Aletia who was the shortest would be completely buried within the 160-centimeter tall grass.

"You seem thinking about something seriously," Aletia finally commented Rio's strange behavior since they arrived in this floor.

Rio looked down at Aletia who was a head shorter than him and displayed a troubled expression. After a few seconds, he finally shook his head and got a grip on himself. He replied to them, "I think I'm forgetting about something important, but I can't recall it correctly despite I'm trying to remember it."

Liselotte and Aletia tilted their heads quizzically from Rio's unclear words. Rio disregarded their curiosity and glanced at the head of the monster which looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. When they had first descended onto the floor they were currently on, they had been greeted by a massive sea of trees. Each tree was over ten meters tall, and they were packed together tighter than sardines. The entire floor was extremely humid as a result. However, unlike the jungle floor they had traversed earlier, it wasn't sweltering hot. As they had been searching for the next staircase, they suddenly felt a huge earthquake. Seconds later, they had found themselves face to face with a huge reptilian monster.

It was decided that Liselotte and Aletia would deal with any monster appearing before them. Liselotte needed these fights to be familiar with her sharp increase of status and a new skill she acquired every time she ate monster's meats. For Aletia, though she had abundant battle experience from her past, she had been sealed for 300 years and her skill had become rusty in the result. Thus, Rio allowed them to hog all monsters to get better in a fight.

Aletia could cast any elemental spell nearly instantly and supported Liselotte from the rear. Though she was unparalleled when it came to offensive magic, it appeared Aletia wasn't very skilled with barriers or healing. Perhaps it was because she unconsciously regarded them as unnecessary since she was able to automatically heal any wounds. Furthermore, Liselotte had her Ambrosia with her, so she had no need for healing spells either. Still, it didn't mean that Rio would allow his girls to get meaningless wounds.

Although Rio had less battle experience than them, he had his cheats to fall back on. So, he gave up his chance for fighting monsters for Liselotte's and Aletia's sake. Of course, Rio was always on standby and would support both of them when they were in a pinch. However, it would end at an instant whenever Rio stepped in because his power was unreasonably out of the norm.

The only difference was, for some reason, it had a beautiful flower adorning the top of its head. Its sharp fangs and overflowing bloodl.u.s.t clearly marked a dangerous foe, but the sunflower resting atop its head made it seem more comical than deadly. This was quite possibly the most surreal monster Liselotte and Aletia had faced thus far.

However, the moment Rio saw these surreal monsters appearance, he felt that there was something important about them and became restless when he was unable to remember what he should remember in regards to these flowery reptilian monsters. It was the main reason why Rio was absentminded thus far.

'Shit! I can't remember it!' Rio grimaced suddenly, deepening the confusion and worry Liselotte and Aletia were feeling for him. However, he was into his own world, so he was ignoring them for the time being. 'Wait! Can I create something like a perfect memory recall or something?'

Rio suddenly had an idea. He tried this idea and was pleasantly surprised when the skill he wanted was created.

'Now, let's try to recall the memory of volume 1 of Arifureta. In canon, Hajime's story in the Great Orcus Labyrinth was focused in volume 1.' Rio triggered off his new skill and recalled the content of volume 1 with the perfect clarity. He could remember the content of the book a word by a word, a sentence by a sentence with 100% accuracy.

Finally, he arrived in the part of the Tyrannosaurus Rex with a flower on its head. Rio's eyes immediately turned wide when he finally discovered the reason behind his restlessness.

"Liselotte! Get close to me! Quick!" Rio shouted in urgency, making Liselotte and Aletia speechless by the suddenness of it. Still, Liselotte recovered quickly and approached Rio in a hurry. Meanwhile, Aletia stared at Rio's urgent expression in puzzlement.

Rio ignored Aletia's stare and created a strong barrier around them after Liselotte arrived at his right. The three of them were inside of semitransparent platinum shell in a dome shape. In fact, the barrier was circular in shape and it went down into the ground.

"Hell Scape!"

Right after that, Liselotte's and Aletia's pupils shrunk into dots as they were badly shaken by the unreasonableness of Rio's outrageous existence they were witnessing.